Northrop N-1M

The Northrop N-1M, short for Northrop Model 1 Mockup and nicknamed Jeep, was an American experimental aircraft that Northrop Aircraft built in 1939 and 1940 as a flying testbed to prove Jack Northrop's vision of a practical flying wing. It was built mostly of specially laminated layers of glued wood, with wooden wings that allowed easy configuration changes around a central blended fuselage of tubular steel, and it flew for the first time on 3 July 1940 at Baker Dry Lake in California, with chief test pilot Vance Breese at the controls. Early tests showed it to be satisfactory in stability and control but overweight and underpowered, so its two 65 horsepower Lycoming engines, buried in the wing to reduce drag, were replaced by two Franklin six-cylinder engines. The N-1M proved basically sound and paved the way for the larger Northrop YB-35 and YB-49. Donated to the United States Army Air Forces in 1945, it was restored in the 1980s and is now displayed at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.